Rutgers University researchers worked with Asbury Park, New Jersey in order to evaluate where to put temporary bike lanes before committing to the real thing.
New bike lanes come out to anywhere from $5000 per mile to millions, especially when you throw in landscaping, reconstruction, and barricades into the project. Instead of doing that, the Rutgers University researchers used high and low-tech strategies to save money, and test this out.
This idea what part of a micromobility project Asbury Park is working on in an attempt to increase scooter and bike use on the roads and create a citywide bike network. The installation covered a two-block stretch that leads to the road that parallels the city’s boardwalk.
Using traffic cones, stencils, and spray chalk, as well as utilizing a pool noodle to maintain distance from the curb, the researchers set up the trial bike lanes in April. They recorded the bike and scooter user experience before and after the bike lane installation with eye-tracking glasses and galvanic skin response sensors that record stress levels. The footage and LiDAR scans allowed them to simulate the on-site rider experience through a virtual reality headset in a campus VR lab. Traffic camera footage provided further information on interactions with bikes, scooters, cars, buses, and pedestrians.
The pop-up bike lanes operated for several weeks in April, and the researchers surveyed community residents on their experience using them.
Defining the bike lane, in particular, the use of traffic cones to create tighter turn radiuses at intersections, succeeded in encouraging slower speeds and safer driving, the researchers reported, but the cones blew over in heavy winds, thus they recommended permanent delineators at those intersections. The bike lanes proved popular with surveyed residents as well, with about 90% of the respondents supporting making them permanent.
Polli Schildge, member of the Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition, said that the test was “positively received, it was a little vague. People didn’t get it. When they were directed to it, they felt more comfortable there.”
“Riding a scooter is difficult to simulate virtually,” the report said. Some users had motion sickness when using the VR headsets. “However, the 3D digital environment is very beneficial for modeling potential changes in the built environment,” stated the report.
The researchers shared learned lessons from the project such as finding a control site that does not have a bike lane to compare changes in traffic and speed, evaluate a project for an entire year to see seasonal variations in traffic patterns, surveying users for their experiences, and publicizing the project on social media and look for other ways to reach affected road users.
The researchers noted they failed to notify bus drivers about how to adjust operations where the bike lane passed in front of a bus stop. While the design allowed the bus to enter the bike lane to pick up and drop off passengers at the curb in front of the stop, some drivers did not pull over. Rutgers project chief Leigh Ann Von Hagen said, “That’s something that definitely needs to be worked on.”
Before Asbury Park decides to construct a permanent bike lane in that location, Rutgers is examining the project. “That was a little disappointing,” said Rutgers postdoctoral research associate Hannah Younes in response to the project not continuing over the summer. The city “didn’t want to do construction work during the summer because it [involves] a busy intersection.”
-----------------------------
Source: Smartcitiesdive.com
